RSC are producing a version of ‘A Christmas Carol’ based on the well known story by Charles Dickens. This was originally performed by RSC in 2003. Music and supper will also feature as part of the evening’s entertainment. See more about this production in The Web November 2018 newsletter by clicking here.

This will be a rehearsed reading (in costume) and we hope that many of you – adults and children – will be able to take part. Supper will be provided by The Nippy Chippy!

Newsletter of the Red Spider Company

After a well-earned Summer break, Red Spider are back in action and firing on all cylinders. Not only do we have arrangements in place for a production in December and for another next April, but we have even got plans drawn up for a further very special production in 2020. (More about that shortly.) How about that for forward planning! So, what have we got in store for you?

Supper With Scrooge

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he first part of the plan takes the form of preparing for a one night only production, on Saturday 1stDecember, of Charles Dickens’ famed Christmas story, A Christmas Carol. This will take the form of a rehearsed reading, with all the familiar characters from Dickens’ famed novel, in full Victorian costume,and, of course, plenty of “Bah! Humbug”. If that was not enough, the play will be accompanied by supper, to be served between acts one and two, freshly cooked to order and provided by the Nippy Chippy. As well as fish and chips, choices include sausage and chips and a vegetarian option, all accompanied by a glass of mulled wine or apple juice and homemade mince pies.

This is designed to be, as much as anything, a social evening and we are delighted to include among the cast the children who made Fantastic Mr Fox such a special experience earlier in the year, as well as many well-known members of RSC. Directed for us, in his own inimitable fashion, by Charles Dickens (aka Martin Perry).

Supper with Scrooge Date, Time, Venue & Tickets:

Sunday 1st December, curtain up at 7.30 pm, at Lewdown Victory Hall

Tickets £9.50

Available from:

Maureen Cooke: 01837 871110

Martin Perry: 01409 221376

Lifton Shop.

Dangerous Corner

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he second part of our plan, takes the form of a production of Dangerous Corner, by J. B. Priestley, directed by Alan Payne, to be held at Lewdown Victory Hall on April 11th to 13th 2019.

Dangerous Corner is Priestley’s first solo play and the first of his plays in which he exploits the theory that there are other forms of time, or Time, than the purely linear one. The following synopsis can be read in full on the J.B. Priestley Society website: www.jbpriestleysociety.com/dangerous-corner.

The play is set in the drawing room of Freda and Robert Caplan’s country house. Present are Freda herself; Olwen Peel, Freda’s contemporary; Betty Whitehouse, a younger woman; and Maud Mockridge, a woman novelist. Dinner is over and the women are listening to the end of a wireless play, in which a gun is fired, a woman screams and there is the sound of a woman sobbing. A voice announces that they have just been listening to The Sleeping Dog by Humphrey Stoat. The women discuss the play and then move on to the suicide of Freda’s brother-in-law, Martin Caplan. At this point their menfolk join them. These are Charles Stanton; Gordon Whitehouse, Betty’s husband; and Robert Caplan. This last-named is the principal of the family publishing firm, Olwen is an executive of the firm and Gordon and Charles are partners. It is a cosy, seemingly relaxed group. The routine conversation continues. Then one of the women notices a musical cigarette box in the room and makes a fatal remark, fatal because it triggers a whole series of shocking revelations about the characters and their relationships with each other and with the dead Martin Caplan. They are shown to have turned a dangerous corner which has led to the truth – the sleeping dog – coming out. The action progresses to a climax, in which, as in the wireless play, a gun is fired, a woman screams, and the sound of sobbing is heard. The action then returns to the beginning of the play itself, complete with the end of the wireless play. The conversational exchanges are substantially as before. The same character as before notices the cigarette box. But this time the fatal remark is not made, the sleeping dog has been left undisturbed. The play ends in a whirl of exuberant jollity.

Dangerous Corner may be little more than a box of clever theatrical tricks – Priestley himself thought so – but as an ensemble piece with some depth to the characterisation it has easily survived the decades since its first production, being constantly revived in both professional and amateur productions. Interestingly, there are references to drug addiction, bisexuality and even pornography, which, had the context not been so conventional, would have been quite startling for the play’s period.

The cast for RSC production of Dangerous Corner has been chosen and consists of the following:

There will be weekly evening rehearsals at Trebick Barn on Tuesday evenings. Dates to follow.

In addition to our actors, we will need a dedicated and enthusiastic team of people to take on a variety of roles to support the production.If you would like to get involved with this production, or know of someone who you think might be interested, please contact Amanda Greenhalgh amandakgreen@hotmail.co.uk for more information.

2020

The final piece of our forward plan will remain under wraps for the time being, but as clues think of Ron Wawman and Sabine Baring-Gould and a staging in Bratton Clovelly Parish Hall.

And Some Came Home: the community production which commemorates the First World War, returns to Callington.

First performed in 2014, it has a Cast of over sixty local people of all ages – actors, singers and musicians – many of them having taken part in the original production.

Although Callington was nowhere near the Front Line in the dreadful conflict that was taking place on the continent, the story of what Callington was doing to assist in the War Effort is deftly woven into the bigger picture with songs of the period featuring throughout the show.

With £2.000 of funding from the Tesco @Bags of Help’ scheme, and supported throughout by accompanist Jenny Coombe, Callington Town Band has been able to make this a ‘FREE ADMISSION’ concert and therefore a real community event.

Newsletter of the Red Spider Company

Well, it seems we were nearly a year early when the words “Here comes summer” appeared in The Web in July last year. What a mistake that was, but time cures everything, so after a really good production in February of, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Spidershave had ample opportunity to recover from the deprivations of a really dreary few months and “The Beast from the East”, so we hope you are now ready to gird your loins for our next two projects:

Supper With Scrooge

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n the 1stDecember 2018, we hope to reprise a successful exercise, last undertaken in 2003, when a star-studded cast, including Selby Johns, Mike and Pam Ingham, Mary Rolfe, Bill Stuart, Tony Kemeny and Roy Stacey, undertook a rehearsed reading of a dramatisation, by Philip Guilmant, of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. This involves no fewer than eighteen characters, including Dickens himself, Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim and the ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future, telling the tale, over two Acts, of Scrooge’s conversion from curmudgeon, to congenial elder statesman. Packed with plenty of “Bah Humbugs”, and evocations of Victorian Christmases, the whole will be interspersed with a range of musical interludes.

Each Act lasts some 40 minutes and will be separated by a delicious supper; main course provided by our old friends, Nippy Chippy (fish and chips or alternatives) and puddings courtesy of RSCmembers. We will be returning to our favourite venue of Lewdown Victory Hall for this evening and there will, of course, be both a bar and a raffle.

This is intended to be a fun evening. Although there will be rehearsals, there are no lines to learn and there are parts for all ages, as well as opportunities for all kinds of musician and singer, including a children’s choir and, of course, carol singers, to take part.

If you were in any doubt as to whether this will be fun, the Director is none other than Martin Perry, with some assistance from Maureen Cooke.

It is hoped to get the project under way on Sunday October 7that 2.30 pm, at Lewdown Victory Hall, with a casting and read through. If you are interested, but unable to come along on the 7th, please get in contact with either Martin at (martinperry.northlew@gmail.com), or Maureen at (mocooke@btinternet.com).

Rehearsals will take place on Sunday afternoons throughout November, culminating on 29thand 30thNovember with set up, dress rehearsal and interaction with the musical acts.

More details will follow and tickets will, as usual, be available well in advance, price £TBC, to include supper.

Dangerous Corner

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ollowing a very enjoyable evening reading scenes from two plays by J.B. Priestley, Eden End and Dangerous Corner, earlier this year, RSC are now planning to produce one of Mr. Priestley’s most renowned plays, Dangerous Corner, in the Spring of 2019.

It is planned at the moment to hold performances on 25th– 27thApril 2019, again at Lewdown Victory Hall, but there may also be some follow-up performances at Mount Kelly in Tavistock.

We are extremely pleased that another well-known Spider. Alan Payne, has agreed to take up the role of director once again.

A casting meeting will take place on Sunday 16thSeptember, at 2.30 pm, at Lewdown Victory Hall. If you are interested, please contact Alan at (magenta@trebick.com) for more information in advance of September, to express your interest. Rehearsals are planned to commence in February.

While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life, and he gained fame as the author of such novels as Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891)

However it was the North Cornish coast, the Valency Valley was where English novelist and poet, Thomas Hardy, met his first wife, Emma, in 1870. Both the place and Emma herself provided inspiration for Hardy’s works for years to come.

Thomas Hardy was a 30 year old architect who came to survey the building and prepare the design for St Juliot Church and the rectory it was then he met Emma on 3 March 1870. Emma Gifford was living at the rectory with her sister, the Revd Cadell Holder’s second wife. The first visit lasted four days during which Hardy visited Tintagel, Beeny Cliff and the Valency Valley.

Hardy returned to St Juliot in August that same year when he stayed longer. As well as working on the church he and Emma continued to explore the North Cornwall coast including Bude, Trebarwith Strand and The Strangles beach.

Other visits followed and they married in 1874. Thomas Hardy’s third novel, ‘A Pair of Blue Eyes’, had been published in 1873 and Emma was the model for the heroine of the book. However, many places were deliberately disguised and created by Hardy as a fusion of great houses he once visited.

The marriage between Hardy and Emma turned sour but when she died in November 1912, Hardy, consumed with remorse, wrote several poems in her memory. He returned to St Juliot the following spring. There, he designed the memorial tablet to Emma on the north wall of the church, and had it made by a Boscastle stonemason.

Sabine Baring-Gould in CornwallSpeaker: Martin Graebe

Though Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924) is most closely associated with Devon, his home in Lewtrenchard was close to the Cornish border and he was a frequent visitor to the county to study its history, archaeology and its people.

He described them in many of the books and articles that he wrote, and he set several of his popular novels in the landscape of East Cornwall. He was a President of the Royal Institution of Cornwall. He was a leading figure in the restoration of the Well-Chapel of St Clether in 1898.

Baring-Gould regarded the collection of songs that he made in Devon and Cornwall as his greatest achievement and he made many visits to the county to hear the songs of Cornish men and women and to make a permanent record of their songs and their lives.

Martin Graebe will talk about Baring-Gould’s discoveries in Cornwall at the end of the Nineteenth Century, and about the songs that he heard from its people. Time permitting, some of these songs may be performed by Martin and his wife, Shan

Biography:
Martin Graebe researches and writes about folk song. He lived and worked for many years in West Devon where he took a particular interest in Sabine Baring-Gould, and the collection of songs that he made in the area around his home at Lewtrenchard. He sings with his wife, Shan, and they have performed Baring-Gould’s songs to audiences around the world. Martin’s book, As I Walked Out, Sabine Baring-Gould and the Search for the Folk Songs of Devon and Cornwall, was published in the Autumn of 2017.

Organised by Barry West Cornish Researcher and the people of St Clether.